AQUACULTURE FACTS
Global demand for healthful seafood is growing at unprecedented rates due to:
 Growing global population (projected 9 billion by 2050*)
 Rising middle class in Asia and India
 Health benefits of seafood: 2 servings/week recommended**
Wild-caught fisheries cannot to meet this demand:
 Additional 41 million tons of fish per year needed to maintain current
consumption levels*
 85% of world’s fisheries fully- or over-exploited*
 Wild fish capture relatively flat since mid-1980’s*
Aquaculture is increasingly relied upon to provide a sustainable source of
nutritious and affordable seafood:
 Globally, aquaculture now provides 50% of all seafood for human
consumption*
 Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector, and is expected to
increase an additional 33% by 2021*
Forms of Aquaculture:
 Freshwater Pond – carp, tilapia
 Freshwater Runways – trout
 Saltwater Ponds - shrimp
 Near-shore Ocean Net Pens – salmon
 Offshore/Open Ocean – kampachi, cobia, tuna
 Closed Containment – tilapia, testing various marine fish, shellfish
 Multi-trophic – ocean net pens with mussels
What Makes Aquaculture Sustainable?
According to a 2011 report by Conservation International, aquaculture has the
least environmental impact of any other protein production on the planet.***
Technological and biological advances in the past 25 years have greatly increased
the sustainability factor of aquaculture.
The Three “Legs” of Sustainability:
1) Hatchery technology
 Hatching eggs from brood stock and raising them to fingerlings to stock pens,
rather than catching wild fingerlings and raising to harvest size (ranching),
eases pressure on wild ocean resources
 Scientific advances in the past 10 years have enabled biologists to determine
and raise the algae and live feed critical for the nutritional needs of larval fish
2) Responsible Management
 Careful siting and rotation of pens/ponds mitigates environmental impact
 Judicious stocking densities and constant monitoring of water quality and
benthic impact assures optimal conditions
 Advanced fish health science avoids disease and prophylactic antibiotics
 Improved net technology deters escapes
 Focus on native species avoids problems with invasive species
3) Sustainable Feed
 Replacing wild-caught fishmeal and fish oil with alternative proteins, such as
soy, eases pressure on ocean resources
 Feed research has resulted in new formulations of soy-based feed to better
meet the nutritional needs of popular carnivorous fish species, reducing fish
in:fish out ratios for many species to close to 1:1
 Soy-based feeds are more affordable for aquaculture operators than fishmeal
and fish oil
 Soy can scale up to meet demand for a growing global aquaculture industry
Sources:
*United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization
**American Heart Association
***Conservation International, “Blue Frontiers” 2011